


Diamonds

by Yellowbirdbluetoo



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Avocato and Gary’s ship name should be Garycato, Little Cato is a little shit, M/M, Sorry but I don’t Ship Quinn and Gary, Takes place after season 6 but like the last two minutes don’t happen, or Avogary, spoilers?, you know what I’m talking about, you know who doesn’t you know what
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-16 14:25:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14166834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yellowbirdbluetoo/pseuds/Yellowbirdbluetoo
Summary: Gary laid face down in his bed, groaning into his pillow as he mumbled a barely audible request.“HUE, play heartbreak playlist”.“PLAYING HEARTBREAK PLAYLIST”.....“GARY ARE YOU HEARTBROKEN?”“I dunno. I just... I’ve been up here for five years thinking about one girl. I couldn’t get Quinn off my mind she was all I thought about most of the time. But now...I can’t stop thinking about someone else. My heart is like...”. He mimics something close to an explosion with a surplus of hand signals.“MAY I ASK WHO IS NOW OCCUPYING YOUR THOUGHTS?”.“Okay. But you have to pinky swear not to tell anyone. And I mean anyone!”. Gary holds out a pinky and after a few moments of silence HUE responds. “I DO NOT HAVE A PINKY GARY”.Gary groans into his pillow again.





	1. A little bit of intro in my life

Gary laid face down on his bed, groaning into his pillow as he mumbled a barely audible request. 

“HUE, play heartbreak playlist”.

“PLAYING HEARTBREAK PLAYLIST”.

Some song starts playing and Gary is ready to just wallow in his own pity while listening to all of the old songs his parents used to listen to. Mooncake slept nearby in his makeshift bed that consisted of one of Gary’s drawers that had a blanket in it. He didn’t react to the slow and sad song that began playing.

“....”

“GARY ARE YOU HEARTBROKEN?”

The blonde rolls over to lie on his back to look up at the blank ceiling, despite the AI constantly reminding him he didn’t exist up there, before answering. 

“I dunno. I just... I’ve been up here for five years thinking about one girl. I couldn’t get Quinn off my mind she was all I thought about most of the time. But now...I can’t stop thinking about someone else. My heart is like...”. He hesitates before mimicking something close to an explosion with a surplus of hand signals. 

“MAY I ASK WHO IS NOW OCCUPYING YOUR THOUGHTS?”.

“Okay. But you have to pinky swear not to tell anyone. And I mean anyone!”. Gary holds out a pinky and after a few moments of silence HUE responds. “I DO NOT HAVE A PINKY GARY”.

Gary blinks before collapsing onto the bed again with a louder groan. “Fine. Just regular promise then”. 

“UNDER PROTOCOL 625 SECTION C, I PROMISE TO KEEP THE NEW INFORMATION I AM ABOUT TO RECIEVE FROM THE OTHER PASSENGERS UPON THIS SHIP UNLESS GIVEN ORDERS NOT TO”.

“Sounds good enough to me. Okay”. Gary peers around as if someone were listening though he was pretty sure it was late enough that everyone else would be asleep. 

“I think I like... Avocato”.

“PROCESSING NEW DATA. NEW INFORMATION CORRECT”.

Gary raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean correct HUE?”.

I MONITOR ALL INTERACTIONS AND ONGOINGS IN THE SHIP AND RECORDS OF YOUR HEARTBEAT WHEN AROUND ‘AVOCATO’ IS FASTER THAN WHEN YOU SPEAK TO MS.QUINN”.

“Wait...since when do you call her Ms. Quinn?”.

“SINCE SHE REQUESTED ME TO”.

Gary scoffed. “I’ve asked you to call me captain for like, five years!”. 

“WELL, IN DUE CIRCUMSTANCE MS.QUINN IS NOT A CRIMINAL”.

“I’m not a criminal. I made one accidental huge mistake”.

“92 SHIPS AND-“.

“Yeah I know I know, one family owned Mexican restaurant yeah I remember”.

A few beats of silence before Gary speaks quietly. “But like, what should I do about this. The whole ‘not liking Quinn but liking Avocato even though he’s a cat’ thing?”. 

“I AM REVIEWING EARTH MEDIA AND THE MOST COMMON ANSWER IS ‘TELL HIM HOW YOU FEEL’”.

“Yeah no freaking way am I gonna do that”. 

“IT SEEMS LIKE THE MOST PLAUSIBLE SOLUTION FOR YOUR PROBLEM”.

“Well I’ve never been a plausible person”. He sits up, scratching his back through his pajamas. “I’m gonna go for a walk. Clear my mind or some crap”.

“OKAY. NO MIDNIGHT SNACKING. THE FRIDGE IS LOCKED”.

“Of course it is, HUE! Of course it is”.

-/-

Gary walks down the hallway, one thought on his mind and also very stereotypically, on his heart.

He stopped at the big reinforced glass window that have a view of the galaxy surrounding them. Big. Massive. Scary. Alone. He sighs notably loud but the walls here are very thick so he doubts anyone would hear it. 

Well at least he wasn’t alone anymore. Now he has Mooncake. And Quinn. And... Avocato. 

Great now he was thinking about ‘him’ again. He needed to clear his head. 

He turns and nearly jumps out of his own skin as he nearly runs into Cato, who raises an eyebrow at him. “What?”. 

“You- ah- stop scaring me like that! It’s like the fifth time since yesterday!”.

Cato, the little shit, just smirks. “Sorry. I’m light on my feet”. He flexed his claws around the bag of chips in his hand and looks around at the empty space. “What are you doing out here?”.

“Wha- I could ask you the same thing!”. He points a finger in the younger ones face, but Cato, even though he’s known Gary for about only three days now is somehow used to it, and doesn’t even flinch. 

“Getting a snack?”. He shakes the bag of chips as if to prove his point. “Duh. And quiet You’ll wake my dad up”.

“....wait a minute”. Gary shoots a glare at a ceiling camera, but his voice is noticeably quieter, for Gary anyways. “Not cool HUE! I thought midnight snacks were off limits?”. 

“YOUNG CATO IS NOT A PRISONER ON THIS VESSEL, GARY”.

Gary huffs, not even dignifying that with a response. 

“You didn’t answer my question”. Cato says, eating a handful of chips. 

“What?”. Gary repeats. “What question?”.

“The question I just asked. I didn’t even notice at first that you had switched the topic. Your good at that”.

“...uh...thanks? I mean, I’m naturally good at everything but yeah”. Cato rolls his eyes. “Your doing it again”. His tail twitched impatiently. “What are you doing out here so late? Couldn’t sleep or something?”.

“Yeah...got a lot on my mind”.

“Like what”. The cat leans against the wall and Gary guesses he’s not gonna give up so easily. It easily reminds Gary of the boys father and he has to blink forcefully to get his head clear. And to get ‘him’ out of his thoughts. Again. 

“Quinn”.

Not a lie. He did think about Quinn. How she’d take it knowing he didn’t like her anymore. If he could even tell her. How would that even go? ‘Hey I don’t like you, I like a space alien cat guy I’ve known for less than a week but I think I might be in love with him-‘. 

Oh god he just said he loved ‘him’. In his thoughts yes, but still, did that count? He wasn’t sure. 

“Quinn? The girl you like?”.

“Well yeah she is the only girl on the ship”.

“What about Beth?”.

“Beth is a sloppy second at best, let’s be real here”.

A slightly awkward but comfortable silence over took them. Well it was comfortable before Cato said six words, six measly little words that made Gary kinda wanna throw up in his mouth a little bit. 

“I know you like my dad”.

Gary must turn to look at him so fast that he gets whiplash because he can’t even talk. He stutters out a few half formed words but known of them even get out of his mouth because the thoughts running through his brain are going faster than a subway station at rush hour. 

‘How did he know? Did he guess? Am I really that obvious? Does Avocato know? Does Quinn know? Did HUE tell him? Maybe I didn’t hear him right? Does he not want me dating his dad? Is he gonna blackmail me? Oh crapping shit balls this was awful. He was gonna die. Spontaneous combustion would be a cool way to go out if he really had to think about it or-‘

“Gary!”. Cato snapped his fingers in the blondes face, making Gary jump in surprise. Again. “Stop doing that!”.

“Well stop zoning out. You looked super freaked out”. 

“How did you know I liked Avocato?”. Cato rolls his eyes. “Your kinda like super obvious. Your always staring at him, you don’t interrupt him as much when he talks, you guys have your weird hand-clasped friendship thing, you talk about him a lot when your not together”. He’s counting off of his fingers now. “I’m pretty sure even Quinn’s noticed by now”.

‘Double crap’. He thinks. 

“Double crap”. He says out loud, because he needs to say something. 

Cato, still the little shit, must see he’s panicking because he places a calming hand(paw?)on his arm. “Hey, if it helps im pretty sure my dad has no clue. He’s pretty dense when it comes to people liking him”.

“Are you even okay with me liking your dad? I mean... it’s your dad!”.

Cato shushes him again, his ear twitching as he listened to see if anyone heard them before continuing. 

“It’s a little weird to think about someone dating my dad, cause,yeah, he is my dad but I think he really likes you. And I know you like him. You guys just need to stop being so dumb and talk to each other”.

He almost stops breathing right then and there because dating Avocato was not something he had thought of but now imagining them dating. Well that would certainly keep him up all night. 

“This is way too much for my brain to think right now. I think I’m gonna go lie down”. It’s a lazy excuse but little Cato lets him leave. 

He rests against the door to his room as soon as he makes it in and relaxes slightly when he sees Mooncake still sleeping soundly in the darkness of the room. He quietly creeps into bed and tries to go to sleep, despite knowing he’s still gonna spend the next few hours staring at his ceiling again.


	3. My heart beats to the beat of the drums

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *this chapter title is a lyric so ha! Have fun guessing that!*
> 
> I feel Gary’s pain. Being around your crush is hard. Of course I only love imaginary people or famous people that I have no chance of meeting but whatever.

“Kind of in unbearable pain so if we could speed this up, please!”.

His robot arm is acting up again, so he’s currently laying on a table and Avocato is peering over him, tool in hand and another being held in his mouth as he squints and tries to fix the problem. 

Gary’s arm isn’t the only thing short circuiting. His brain might just explode having Avocato standing over him like this. Honestly is he trying to kill him? Is that his master plan? Because kudos to him, it’s definitely working. 

“How’s that?”. Avocato, voice slightly muffled do to the screwdriver in his mouth, speaks finally and Gary nods, moving to sit up as he examined his arm. Avocato apparently wasn’t planning that because now they’re faces are inches apart and ‘wow’, Gary almost wishes he could die on the spot when Avocato smirks at him and does an affectionate eye roll before moving away to put away the tools. 

His heart is beating a mile a minute and he’s glad they have defibrillators onboard because he might just have a heart attack. 

“I’m gonna-go! Bathroom!”. A lazy excuse but a classic is what he chooses to stutter out of his mouth before zipping down the corridor and up the anti-gravity elevator. 

He’s in the bathroom, currently freaking out because if Avocato dosent know he has a crush on him now he’s a damn idiot. But that would sill mean Gary’s in love with an idiot. 

A handsome, charismatic, charming, brave, smart-. He shakes his head. That list is long enough without him listing it and adding things that he hadn’t thought about last night. And the night before.

And he thought he had it bad for Quinn. When he thought about it he didn’t really know Quinn. She was hot, seemingly brave since she was an infinity guard, and very hard to get. Then again he never did really like infinity guards after his dad...left. So maybe it makes sense?

He’s known Avocato for nearly a month now and he knows a lot more stuff about him. He purrs when he sleeps, he hisses when he’s mad, he dislikes Gary’s salad for no good reason, he’s a light sleeper, he’s handy with tools, he’s good at cards, he’s a great father and a great best friend-

He blinks suddenly, realizing he’s adding onto that list of his again. He gives his head a shake, knocking it lightly. “Get it together Goodspeed”. It’s not like a little crush was gonna get the best of him.

-/-

It was getting the best of him. 

He wasn’t sleeping well, HUE had definitely noticed and questioned him daily and constantly asked if he need to be revived when his heartbeat maxed around the Ventrexian. 

“IT IS IN BEST INTEREST IF YOU TELL HIM, GARY”. 

“I know, I know!”. His words are muffled by his pillow that he had been screaming in for the last five minutes but stopped since his throat was beginning to hurt and Mooncake seemed concerned with his well-being.

The tiny alien brushed against Gary’s side, humming like he normally did to try and get Gary into a better mood. 

“My brain is mush HUE! Mush!”. He lets the pillow cover his face and groans. “I didn’t even feel this strongly about Quinn”. Was that just a small time crush? Is this a big time crush? Was he in love with Avocato? Long answer: maybe, he’s never been in love with someone before except maybe Quinn but now he’s not so sure that was love more like a crush but his hearts sudden infatuation with Avocato felt real. Like, really real.

So that made the short answer: yes.

“Crap”.

-/-

He’s in the kitchen late at night, shuffling the deck of cards with no intention of playing. Mooncake is great, but he’s not good at cards. And Gary doesn’t wanna wake him up, as he was snoozing on his lap. He runs a hand over the aliens head, sighing and he leans his head back harshly against the wall. “Stupid Gary Goodspeed. Always stupid”. He mumbles. “Should get that on a card. Or a tattoo”.

“Don’t get a tattoo, Gary”. Avocato’s voice, low and rumbly with sleep startled him, as he noticed the Ventrexian enter the room. He raises an eyebrow and Gary while he opens the fridge. “What are you doin’ up this late?”.

“I could ask you the same question”. Gary tiredly fires back. 

Avocato makes some noise of response, fishing out a water bottle and sitting across the table from Gary. “I couldn’t sleep”.

“Bad dream?”. Gary can’t help but ask from experience. He’s had enough to know but Avocato’s not showing any of the signs. No shaking. Definitely no tears. He didn’t seem down, and he was up and talking for the most part besides the obvious tiredness in his voice. 

“Nah. Just an old case of insomnia”.

Gary hums in response, the cards in his hands sudddenly becoming very interesting.

'Wanna play a hand?". Avocato asks and Gary tiredly smiles and nods. "Absolutely". His hearts gone off again, beating furiously when Avocato gives him that small grin that means he's definitely gonna win but Gary doesn't mind.


	4. I won’t say I’m in love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sooo one of my headcanons was that in Ep1 we see Gary just walk on a treadmill and stare out the window without drinking his coffee in silence so I thought maybe He does this every morning as a sense of normalcy and routine and the others have to adjust to it?

Gary sighed, as he sat gazing out the large window into the mass of space, coffee cup loosely dangling from his hand and coffee dripping over its rim. 

“Gary. Avocato is asking for your whereabouts”. HUE speaks from above and Gary hums absentmindedly in response. 

“Should I tell him of your location”.

Gary hums again, eyes not leaving the window. 

“I will take that as a yes”.

Avocato turned the corner a few minutes later, relief showing on his face slightly as he spotted the man. “Hey, Gary. You weren’t in your room so I got a bit worried. Quinn’s making breakfast and-“.

Gary hadn’t even turned to look at him, still staring out the window. Coffee still dripping from the mug.

Avocato let his eyes float to the ceiling- though HUE had clarified multiple times that he was built into the ships speakers and mainframe and wasn’t actually located up there- and asked. “Does he do this often?”.

“Yes. Gary does this most mornings. You could say it has become part of his routine”.

“Is he.. okay?”.

“Yes. He will snap out of it in time. He usually only does it for half an hour or so. Though the longest time I’ve documented was nearly an hour. Though that was special circumstance”. 

Avocato hums before quietly going to stand next to Gary, prying the near empty mug from his hand and hesitating before locking his own hand into the Gary’s and giving a slight squeeze that’s hopefully comforting. 

Gary doesn’t acknowledge his presence, other than a small squeeze back, and they stand looking out the window for at least fifteen more minutes, before Gary shakes his head, blinking owlishly. 

“Oh... hey”. He spares a glance at their interlocked hands. Avocato becomes worried and moves to let go but Gary squeezes his hand tightly as an unspoken . His voice is quieter and tougher than Avocato expects and it makes him chuckle. 

“What’s so funny?”.

Avocato shakes his head. “Nothing. Let’s go get breakfast. I think Quinn’s done cooking”. 

Gary scoffs playfully. “Great. Burnt eggs. Delicious”. But he laughs, and Avocato picks out that he’s coming back to normal loud energetic humorous Gary that they all know. 

But he’s glad to have gotten to see this quieter side of the man. 

Before he can linger on the thought, Gary tugs him down the hall and he doesn’t even realize their hands are still connected as he follows him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little Cato’s not even mentioned in this story but let’s pretend he and Quinn were having hijinks in the kitchen and talking about the obviously budding romance between Gary and Avocato.
> 
> -/-
> 
> Short chapter


	5. Our love is r-i-d-i-culous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *You guys haven’t been guessing the song titles what up with that?*
> 
> Soooo people seem y’know really like this fic and I wanna say thanks for reading it!!!! 
> 
> -/-
> 
> Most from Quinn’s POV as she noticed Gary and Avocato’s relationship growing past friends. as she tries to get them together.
> 
> Its pretty easy and it barely requires help.
> 
> hopefully, easier than said than done.

They were in obvious denial of their feelings towards one another and Quinn was sure she was the only one who could tell. Well her and Mooncake at least.

She didn't know if Little Cato had noticed, but he was a smart kid from what she could tell from their limited conversations, if he didn’t know he’d definitely figure it out. 

It wasn’t like they were being subtle. 

The way Gary, even with him being the most touchy-feely person on the ship rivaling KVN, let his touches on Avocato linger past acceptable limits and how Avocato didn’t detest it. 

How Avocato was the only one to offer a chuckle at Gary’s bad and usually poorly timed jokes. 

The way their gazes always stayed on each other and how worried they got when the other got hurt in a battle. 

It was like one of those shitty telenova’s her sister used to watch with all the romance cliches. If those movies took place in space. 

Honestly if they kept dancing around each other like this, she was gonna get them together herself. 

Actually, that wasn't such a bad idea.

-/-

"Soooo, Gary". It's breakfast, and as usual Gary is positioned is his normal role as chef of the ship. Even if he preferred to be called Mr. Captain Chef. It was only way to get your food served so everyone begrudgingly would refer to him as such. She hadn't even realized how much Gary had cooked until he offered a plate to HUE(and being quite embarrassed when HUE politely declined).

"Yeah?" He answers absentmindedly,about to carefully flip pancake. "What's up?". 

"What do you think about Avocato?". 

The pancake hits the floor with an audible thud.

"I uuuh...". He swallows and doesn't turn around to face her. "W-what do you mean?". He stammers, a clear sign of infatuation. 

she scoffs. "I mean, what do you think about him?". She repeat a bit forcefully. Gary is surprisingly good at steering conversations around, even if he seems tongue-tied this morning. 

Gary turns this time if only to slid another plate on the table. They've come to an agreement of eating together like some weird stitched together space family. She doesn't hate it.

"well i mean, he's cool and awsome and stuff, which i mean i guess you have to be if you used to be a bounty hunter. And he's good at cards. And even if he almost let Little Cato get got by the Lord Commander, but he totally saved him!". He clears his throat, embarrassed . "He's a pretty cool guy".

"Okay, but how do you 'feel' about him?". The question is outright and unavoidable.

"Ummm, well I-".

Then Mooncake zips in and snatches the previously forgotten dropped pancake off the ground with a victorious shout. He goes zipping away, and Gary tries to grab him. "Hey we agreed no eating stuff off the floor!". Mooncake ignores him, flying to the door way and turning around briefly to taunt Gary playfully before he's gone down the hallway. Gary huffs. "Well, how rude". He gives up the chase, and goes to sit at the table with her. She's about to ask the question again when Little Cato comes tumbling out of one of the vents.

"I knew I smelled breakfast!". He scrambles to his spot next to Quinn, and Avocato comes in a few seconds later, sliding in the booth next to Gary. "Breakfast smells great". He says to Gary who stammers through a thank you. As everyone begins eating and talking, Quinn abandons the question. For now.

-/-

Gary stares up at the ceiling later that night. He isn't sure how he feels about the Ventrexian. Its a complicated storm in his stomach whenever he thinks about it, so he usually tries not to. He rolls over and shuts his eyes, and tries to sleep.

-/-

"Give me my shirt back, Avocato I swear to god". Even if they're almost the same height, Avocato still has a few inches over Gary. Avocato smirks. "Oh yeah? Why should I?". Gary likes this flirting thing they do. Is it flirting? Or is it just bros being bros? Then again he doesn't think Avocato as a bro, not with the complicated feelings that always stir in his chest when he thinks about the Ventrexian. 

Gary stands on his tip to leaning in to try and grab his shirt, and now they're face to face, easily within kissing distance. His cheeks turn red as he avoids eye contact. "Give me my shirt, come on!". Avocato tilts his head, dumb smirk still on his face. "Make me". He says, challenging. 

Gary narrows his eyebrows.

And then he kisses him.

It was meant to be short, but Avaocato leans in to it, so Gary doesn't stop. His eyes flutter shut, and he's aware of the thud of his shirt hitting the ground when Avocato's other hand goes to his back. Its a long kiss before they finally break for air.

"So that was...". Gary pants.

"Yeah". Avocato pants back.

"Good?".

"Yeah. Good". 

Gary, a bit awkwardly, grabs his shirt from the floor. "Thanks for the shirt".

"Yeah".

He's not really sure what to say. "Do this again sometime?". 

Avocato shakes his head fondly. "Definitely".

-/-

Breakfast the next day is normal. Well normal enough for them. Mooncake and KVN fight over a dropped piece of bacon, Little Cato chats excitedly to Quinn about some show HUE had managed to hook up, and she tries to follow, even though she doesn't have much experience with children.

Gary is positioned at the stove, a grin on his face as he hums a song under his breath, finishing the eggs. Then Avocato walks in, but instead of sitting in his normal spot in the booth he walks over to Gary and snakes his arms around the man. Gary laughs leaning his head back into Avocato, who mumbles something into his hair, which makes Gary laugh again. 

Little Cato is still talking, though he's changed subjects, but Quinn's just watching the scene. The two make their way to the table, still laughing and talking softly.

"Whats all...this about?". She waves a hand at them. Sitting closer than they ever do, and laughing.

Gary and Avocato share a look and Gary does a little jazzy hand move."Me and Avo here, are going steady". Avocato snorts. "Avo? Thats the nickname that took you all night to come up with?".

Gary huffs with a smile. "Not my fault your name is too long for me to say, literally all the time".

"Did you just say 'going steady'?".

"yeah, problem?".

"Just that its not the 60's. But as long as your happy".

Little Cato just laughs. "To be honest I saw this coming a mile away. Just promise you make out in front of me". He sticks his tongue out and mumbles "gross".

This becomes the new normal. Its a nice new normal.


	7. King of the clouds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *alternative title* ‘s l e e p’
> 
> -/-
> 
> Gary doesn’t sleep sometimes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo yeah the title is just me pandering to the new panic song but who cares I do what I want!

Gary doesn’t sleep sometimes. 

Actually, scratch that, Gary doesn’t sleep a lot of the time. What can he say, he’s an energetic person, always moving around, constantly fighting for his life, and trying numerous times to get rid of KVN.

So you’d think that when it’s time to go to sleep he’s be the first to pass out cold and sleep off all that....space junk. 

But he doesn’t. 

They return from missions, yawning and exhausted. Quinn having the ship on autopilot as they float closer to wherever they’ll need to be the next day, Little Cato usually being the first to excuse himself to his bed, Quinn following after. 

Even Mooncake, despite usually staying on the ship, made himself comfortable in Gary’s dresser drawer. 

Gary tries. He showers, eats the dinner that the others were too tired to eat and would most likely eat for breakfast, and then goes to his room. 

And then spend hours of staring at the ceiling. Thinking. About Avocato. Quinn. Little Cato. 

About his dad. 

He thinks about his dad a lot. Like if he’d be proud of him. Of where he was at in his life. The fact that he was a common day criminal. 

He doesn’t think his dad would be proud of him. 

And even when he does finally find some semblance of sleep, he’s awoken less than a few hours later by a nightmare. His dad, dying in front of his eyes when he’s barely eight years old. 

Avocato, his -let’s be real- best friend(they did the ‘clasp of friendship’ for Pete’s sake) floating away, a corpse in space. Another piece of the trail of death Gary leaves behind. 

Ironically, his nightmares about Avocato became more prominent than the ones about his dad. 

With his dad, he was a kid. There wasn’t a chance of him being able to save him. But Avocato...that was different. 

Gay shouldn’t have let his guard down. Gary should’ve spotted the bomb. Gary should’ve been the one to sacrifice himself. Avocato has just been reunited with his son, that he’d been fighting to get back for who knew how long? And they did it. 

They found him. They got him back. And everything was okay for once. Everything was great for two minutes. That’s how long things stay okay around him. 

Little Cato was in the same boat as Gary. But Gary didn’t think he’d make it if he’d have seen his dad die right in front of him. He would’ve dove into space to get him. He would’ve..... well that’s why H.U.E didn’t allow him to have any shoelaces. 

But Gary should’ve saved h i m. His only best friend. He hadn’t had friends as a kid. Only one, and he hadn’t even seen them in.... well at least fifteen years.

Besides childhood friendship didn’t count.

-/-

He runs on coffee, adrenaline, and overbeat enthusiasm alone. Quinn definitely noticed and HUE had most likely been monitoring him but didn’t mention it. 

He goes on for a week and a half-possibly a world record- when he finally shuts down. 

They’re eating breakfast, he’s blinking slowly. If he’s even blinking at all. And then his head is narrowly missing his bowl of oatmeal as it falls onto the table and his eyes finally shut. 

He doesn’t fall asleep immediately, though he can feel the tug of exhaustion pulling him away. 

“Oh my god is he dead? He’s totally dead! Oh my god!”. Little Cato is freaking out. Quinn, thankfully interrupts. “No he’s definitely not dead. He just finally passed out”.

“...what do you mean finally?”.

“He’s hasnt slept in days. HUE told me nightmares and just general insomnia. He was bound to crash eventually”.

“Is he gonna be okay?”. 

 

“Yeah. I’m just gonna let him sleep here. Get a blanket from the supplies closet would you?”.

Something soft covers his shoulders. It’s nice.

Gary finally sleeps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, setting up an OC insert.??? Noooni would never :) 
> 
>  
> 
> ;) 
> 
>  
> 
> Yes I most certainly would


	15. My heads spinning around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Avocato learnsnsome things about Gary over the course of his time on the ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Assuming that the first season slows down a bit. Avo is introduced in episode 1 I believe, an Quinn joins them like, an episode later. 
> 
> So assume they’ve been alone on the ship for at least 3-4 days.

It takes Avocato less than a day to learn Gary sings in the shower. Like really loudly. And not completely off key. 

If he didn’t only sing annoyingly catchy pop songs, he might actually find it nice. 

But he doesn’t. Absolutely not. 

-/-

He sings when he cooks too. Even though it’s usually some type of gruel(oatmeal) with fruit, he hums under his breath, hips swaying at the stove. 

Avocato can’t belive he hasn’t started a fire. 

-/-

Learning that Gary has nightmares is a... less fun, addition, to what he’s learning about him. 

He hears the screams, then the shout of awakeness. Then the heavy breathing, and then sobbing. It’s usually quick, and he’s sure H.U.E has a hand in waking Gary up before things get to bad. 

He wants to ask about it, but every morning Gary acts like it didn’t happen. 

So he doesn’t mention it. 

-/-

Gary can’t have cookies, which he complains about nearly every hour, but when Avocato tells him he’s never had one, he nearly has a heart attack and begs H.U.E to let him try one. 

H.U.E seems to begrudgingly agree, and when he bites into the cookies, it’s not actually terrible. Not something he’d ever find at home, but as he’s heard, earth is a strange planet. 

He eats only half, stashing the rest for later. 

-/-

Gary has a nightmare at least twice a week, maybe more if it’s a bad week. 

That’s what H.U.E said. 

So when he hears the sobbing, after sitting through the other awful sounds, he knocks on the door to Gary’s room and waits. 

It opens a few seconds later to reveal Gary, hastily wiped tear stains easily seen. 

“O-oh. Hey, Avocato. Sorry... was I... could you hear me? From next door?”. He looks... embarrassed?

Avocato smirks. “...yeah. So I brought you this”.

He holds out the napkin contain the half piece of cookie, and watches as Gary takes it, clearly perplexed, before opening it and barely suppressing and shout of happiness. “A cookie!.” He says in a loud whisper. “Well half a cookie, but still!”.

He looks up at Avocato again, then at the cookie, then back again. 

“This is... really nice of you.... thanks”.

Avocato shrugs. “No problem. Sleep tight”.

“Oh... uh yeah! You too!”. The door slides shut, seemingly reluctantly and Avocato sends a wink at H.U.E, who no doubt, would roll his eyes if he could. 

-/-

Gary is very touchy-feely after that night.

He leans on Avocato longer than normal. He gives a lot of hive fives. 

He gives waaaayyy to many hugs. 

But Avocato doesn’t mind.


	17. 1999

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Highschool in the early 90’s but also when your planet has been in close communications with other planets and your earth is a mish-mash of different alien species. 
> 
> Needless to say things get interesting. 
> 
> -/-
> 
> Final Space but set in 1999 assuming technology advanced a lot faster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, I wasn’t alive in the 90’s AT ALL so uhhh... take this with a grain of salt, and know this all comes from 80’s movies I’ve seen or old tv shows I’ve seen. 
> 
> Yeah I watched a lot of Adventures in babysitting as a kid and a LOT of full house sooo yeah. Of course this is assuming other planets are also in the 90’s phase, or just assimilate to it once on earth?
> 
> Oh and Gary’s dad isn’t dead cause fuck me that’s why.

“Bye dad!”. Gary straightens his cap, and barely hears his dad shout a goodbye as he slammed the door behind him, and skipped the first two stairs of his porch, launching himself down the street as he saw the school bus pull up the bus stop.

“Crap, crap, crap, wait for me!”.

Typical Monday morning. 

He makes it, barely, and the bus driver lady gives him a raised eyebrow and says nothing. He smiles apologetically as always, and makes his way down the aisle, past the one cheerleader with wings, and the kid from his science class who was a telepath, and plunked down next to Quinn, who moved her backpack begrudgingly with a sigh. 

“And here I thought you weren’t gonna make it”.

He laughs, being tugged backwards as the bus moves forwards. “I always make it”.

She rolls her eyes fondly. “Mhhmm. Sure. I’ll pretend that’s true”. She plugs in an earbud and holds one out in his direction. He happily accepts. They’ve been doing this for a month now, trying out each other’s music taste, and while they are very drastically different(like whatever RnB Quinn had playing at the moment) but he had added a few of her songs to his playlists, and vice versa. 

—/—

See you during third!”. He calls out as Quinn meets Romelle and he heads off to Chemistry. They only share a few classes and he’s glad for it, but they do live on the same street so it’s not like they never see each other. 

He pops his own earbuds in, a catchy(Quinn would say annoying) pop song blasting and makes his way to his locker. 

The hallways at his school are filled to the brim with cool dudes and dudettes. A teacher with six eyes, another student with three, what looked like a walking sponge passed by without a second thought. 

“Godspeed! No hats in the hallway!”. Mr. Shrune barked and he was quick to snatch the ‘fresh’ cap off his head and run a hand through his hair to calm it. “No prob, Mr. S!”. He turns walking backwards, and gives the man finger guns, which is sure to make him mad but he’s on a high cloud this morning. 

Which is weird, as Monday’s seem to always have something go wrong but, what could possibly go wrong today. He hadn’t even missed the bus-

“Woah!”.

He tumbled over someone, crashing back-first onto the grimy hallway floor. He was slightly dazed from the fall, ignoring the small chorus of laughter from more popular passerby’s. 

“Oh shit! Sorry dude, didn’t mean to jack your style”. A hand is held out to him, and he waits for a few seconds for the dizziness to die down before reaching for it. 

“Oh, don’t worry about it dude, it’s cool beans- woah”.

Catman? Catman. Cat. Man. Okay...

The (Cat man?) made a face. “I stand out that much huh?”. Gary scanned him up and down and shrugged. Sure he was a cat? But other than that, he was dressed like a typical Highschool student. Baggy jeans, cool sneakers(definitely cooler than his) and a-

“Wow dude! Cool Ferris Bueler shirt! Oh, I love that movie!”. He blushes(well under the fur at least?) and Gary holds out a hand. “I’m Gary. Guessing your new?”.

The stranger shook it. “Avocato. Yeah, very new to planet. That’ obvious?”. Gary shook his head and started walking without noticing, as Avocato followed. “Nah. If your weren’t a catman, I totally wouldn’t have noticed”.

He finds his locker, and the minute bell rings. 

“Crap. I’m gonna be late. This is the third time this month, I am so dead!”

“Hey, Uh... could you help me find this class?”. Avocato holds out a paper, and Gary peers at it. It’s his schedule and it’s written in some weird language, but numbers are universal, thank god. 

“Heck yeah! That’s my first period! Oh this is so dope, you can be my Chem partner! Cmon”.

Avocato doesn’t resist the tugging and somehow they make it to the class on time. 

-/-

He sees Avocato four more times that day. First and second, then fifth, then sixth period. When he’s scanning the hallway for Quinn at the end of the day he almost misses the set of ears in the crowd, but he notices them anyway. “Avo!”. He cups his hands around his mouth. “Avocato!”.

The ears swivel around to his direction and he squeezes through the crowd, excusing himself to a girl with horns, and a shorter geeky kid with four hands, finally reaching the expectant looking Avocato. 

“Uh, Hey?”.

“Hey dude! Guess what music video came out during class?”. 

“Video?”.

Gary pulled out his holo-phone. “Ignore the glitch”. He says at the weird static-flash his phone does every few seconds. “Brittney Spears, dunno if you’ve heard of her, but her songs are so slammin’ ya gotta hear it”. He holds out the earbud, and Avocato looks at it suspiciously. “Don’t we have to catch the busses?”.

“Oh yeah! What’s your hover bus number?”. Avocato pulls out his schedule again and Gary peers over his shoulder. “Dude! You ride my bus! Dope! Okay follow me and we can watch the video!”.

-/-

It’s a seven minute walk to the bus and it only takes four minutes for them to watch the video, two for Gary to talk about it, and one to climb on and locate Quinn. 

She spots him, turning away from Romelle for a second, and sees Avocato next to him, raising her eyebrows, she mouths ‘Who’s that?’ And he just grins and plops down across from them, sliding next to the window and patting the seat next to him. Avocato slides into it wordlessly. 

“So... it’s Brittney Spears like... your planet’s icon?”.

“Oh Avo, my dude. If only”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This’ll definitely have a part 2, as soon as I find a song called 2000, which shouldn’t be hard. But yeah, Garycato’s been dead bad in back to write more. 
> 
> I’m trying to rewatch the show btw for motivation but it’s hard to find.


End file.
